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by Osoji
Summary: Gajeel buys a house, Levy is his first guest; neither wants to leave. A story of how their lives unfold together and how their love grows with time. / My first fic ever, R&R appreciated!
1. new surroundings

"This place is _yours_," Levy gushed, practically skipping around in excitement, unbothered by her perpetually scowling boyfriend watching her from behind.

Gajeel had bought a house near the edge of Magnolia, because apartments were "hella expensive and too unreliable." Levy guessed that it was part of his possessiveness, being part dragon and all, wanting a place he could truly claim as his own. Owning a house was an uncommon practice in such a bustling city, but Gajeel was never one to pay attention to social norms anyway; he paid directly in jewels and the house was his. It was small, with two bedrooms and a yard, but still much roomier than the apartment he and Lily previously occupied and unlike any of their guildmates' residences. Levy also took acute notice that it was conveniently located two blocks from Magnolia's largest bookstore, which she convinced herself was nothing more than a happy coincidence, despite her want to believe otherwise.

She had insisted on helping him move in — a flimsy excuse to spend the day with him, since they both knew that he would end up moving everything by himself anyway. And of course he saw right through it, but he agreed on the condition that she make him iron afterwards, as if that made any difference. She ended up staying the night too, much to Lily's amusement, and in the morning, she woke up disoriented in his massive bed before she realized her surroundings. When she emerged from the bedroom, Levy was again rendered speechless like the day before, barely taking notice of Gajeel as she again marveled at his new abode.

"Is it so hard to believe that I bought a house?" Gajeel grunted, annoyance evident in his narrowed eyes.

"What if it is?" She challenged, bouncing over to join him on the couch and accidentally knocking over a metal vase on the floor.

"Oi, I haven't even finished unpacking and you're already breaking my shit," he groused, his frown deepening.

"Tch, you have so much scrap metal lying around its a wonder _I'm_ not broken yet," she retorted, "or worse, I might have contracted tetanus, or—"

"What?"

"Maybe you should spend more time at the bookstore, now that it's so close. And then you'll finally understand the things I talk about," Levy scrambled onto his lap and leaned towards his face with a snarky grin, her nose grazing the studs on his, and he took the chance to steal a kiss. She giggled then, falling against him as he enveloped her in his arms, and they sat in comfortable silence, enjoying each other's presence.

"I really like your house," she murmured after a while, burying her face in the crook of his shoulder.

"Yeah?" he snorted. "Then stay."

He didn't fully register that he said those words aloud until she lifted her head and peeled away from him, breaking his strong hold on her waist. "Really?"

She stared at him with an intensity that would have been unsettling if he didn't know her so well — but he knew her better than most people, and he recognized the seriousness and uncertainty clouded in her wide eyes.

"Well… kinda, I mean… since you're always hangin around my place anyways…" The slightest hint of pink spread across Gajeel's face as he muttered something else unintelligible, and he realized how crass he probably sounded. As if the whole idea was a just joke to him, like he didn't care at all whether she was there or not. As if it had no impact on their relationship and he could just rescind the offer and pretend like nothing happened.

His words were hanging in the air now, and Levy was gaping at him with her head cocked to the side. He inwardly cursed her damn adorable expression for freezing him to the spot, his mind overflowing with thoughts that couldn't form into a coherent explanation on his tongue. He'd always meant to ask her to move in with him, but properly — not nearly as abruptly as he just did, and not when he himself was just barely settled in. _Fucked up again, _a voice in his head hissed.

But Levy had also grown to understand his mannerisms, recognizing his bluntness and apparent indifference as his way of masking affection. She hugged him fiercely as she got over her initial shock at his remark and let out a squeal, catching the dragon slayer off guard, leaving him even more flustered. Gajeel growled in protest when she drew back just as quickly, but the smile she gave him was big and radiant and perfect and he couldn't find it in himself to force any sort of negative reaction.

"I'll start packing tonight!" she declared, happiness and determination overflowing in her voice.

"Wait, that doesn't mean —" but his thought never finished forming, because a second later her lips were on his, and everything else vanished from his mind completely.


	2. the move

Gajeel knew Levy collected books — had known since his early days in Fairy Tail, when he'd taken it upon himself to scope out each member and noticed her frequent trips to the guild library. But he had vastly underestimated the sheer volume of tomes the petite girl owned. He'd been in Levy's dorm in Fairy Hills a few times, but only during the dead of night, usually after a mission, when he was either too exhausted to make the extra distance to his own home or too protective to leave her alone. Sure, he could smell the ink and leather and glue, but he found no reason in wasting time to observe his dim surroundings when he could focus on Levy instead — undressed and sleepy and dragging him to bed, no less.

So when Gajeel returned early from training and saw the mountain of books in front of his house, he was dumbfounded, his face betraying a rare expression of utter disbelief and bewilderment. They were piled up in Erza's massive wagon, an enormous tower of bound paper supported precariously by what looked to him like four very small wheels.

"Oh, Gajeel!" A light rustle came from behind the books and Levy's small head popped up.

"You're finally back, I was wondering where you went. Erza-san already helped me with the hard part, so now all you have to do is help me move them in!" she chirped cheerfully, the lilt in her voice seemingly mocking the enormous task he suddenly faced.

Five minutes later, when Levy assigned him to build bookcases while she put her collection roughly in order, Gajeel realized that the spare room he'd intended on using as an indoor scrapyard would instead be turned into her personal library. He suppressed a groan but obliged to her command; he should have seen this coming, an inevitable condition to living with her, and the faster they got this done, the better. He ended up building her four iron bookcases that reached from the floor to the ceiling, and then an extra fifth one for good measure, anticipating the endless trips to the bookstore he would undoubtedly endure in the future.

The rest of the day was spent bringing them into the house, Levy lugging in twenty medium-sized books for every ten large ones that Gajeel carried. He also helped shelve most of them, since Levy was too short to reach any higher than the fifth shelf, but not before he amusedly watched her jumping and pushing books into place.

It was well past midnight when the two rested on the couch, tired from a day's work of moving, organizing, and reorganizing.

"Thank you," she said softly, "for doing this. For all of it." She clamped both hands on his and leaned into his arm, tracing the studs and brushing her cheek against his muscle before she continued.

"I know you didn't sign up for any of this, but I didn't want you to take back what you said, about me moving in, so I just… did it." Her voiced dropped. "I'm sorry, I didn't even ask for your permission, and — it's not even my house."

Gajeel grunted and pulled her onto his lap, resting his chin on the crown of her head. He let her words sink in, felt her body tense up with anxiety for his response, before he cleared his throat.

"Hey now, who said I was gonna regret what I said? Dragons don't go back on their word. And now that you're settled in, don't start thinking that you can move out anytime soon," he smirked.

"Just, next time, give a guy a warning, yeah?"

Levy looked at him with bright, watery eyes as he let out a throaty laugh, combing his fingers through her hair, and she knew then that he wanted her there, with him. She let her body relax against him, giving her sore muscles a chance to recover, and soon fell asleep in his embrace.


End file.
